We all report the news
Do we know for a fact that it was three million people who turned out for last Saturday’s Hands Off Day of Action? 5.2 million?
We don’t, because despite the wondrous age of artificial intelligence in which we live we have no good ways to count numbers of people who show up for a single unticketed gathering, which means we can’t reach a useful estimate of the aggregate attendance across 1,400+ protests across all 50 states.
The organizers who claim “millions” are relying on the (terrible) estimation abilities of random humans posting their excited guesses on social media. From photographs alone the numbers seem clearly in the hundreds of thousands, and credibly north of a million. Beyond that? It would help if we had a national news media capable—or interested—in answering these questions.
American print news media downplayed the protests, with scant mention on their front pages. Footage of protests did appear briefly on most television news broadcasts (national and local) and was then gone.
Which gets to one of the key flaws in “the news”: that events of significance—e.g. one of the largest mass mobilizations in the history of the country, with no reported incidents of violence or property damage—might receive a single day of coverage before being replaced by whatever new thing arrives the next day (or whichever additional chapter of a story a corporate news entity has decided to invest in retelling again and again).
Many Americans still don’t know that these protests happened last Saturday.
Which can make it useful—important even—for us to keep talking about these protests even days after they happen, with friends, and family, and even through small talk with strangers. To keep sharing the stories, and photos, and videos. For example this map of the US with more than 1,100 individual dots, each with links to photos and videos shared on Bluesky.
In our fractured news and media landscape, it can help for more of us as individuals to do our own reporting. Not our own “research” (because it is possible to “find” an infinite supply of random and toxic “information” on the internet). But reporting: documenting verifiable information (not just things people say), and sharing it with those who might not otherwise have access to that information from their preferred sources for news. Committing random acts of bubble breaking.
There will be more opportunities for your own on-the-ground reporting, including ongoing #teslatakedown events, and what may be another Day of Action coming on April 19. (As a decentralized event organized by multiple, unrelated organizations, details are still TBD.)
This week Anand Giridharadas and Joy Reid discussed why the April 5 event attracted fewer Black Americans than some had hoped.
Reid:
The diversity has been reduced because of this sense of betrayal that Black people feel, that we keep trying to lead this country toward a more perfect union.
And white people keep saying no. They keep saying we want the devil, because the devil will protect our supremacy. And our supremacy matters to us much more than even our own economic survival. Our supremacy is so central to who we are as Americans. We need to be the central characters in the American story. We need to be the main character. And we want that so badly that we're willing to punch ourselves in the face economically… We're willing to lose our livelihoods, our jobs, our businesses, our farms, our whole lives — and including maybe our physical lives — to protect our supremacy.
I think there is a genuine inflection point that's happened. But Black folks at the moment are in self-protection mode. We've got to protect our treasures. We've got to protect because we can't trust y'all.
...
We don't trust y'all to not elect the guy his own VP called “maybe Hitler.” If y'all are going to elect “maybe Hitler,” we don't trust you. And so we're going to let you do the protesting and we're going to brunch.
Giridharadas and Reid are both still choosing to publish on Substack. They do not have to.
One @#$%ing thing
I shared many of the photos from my last post to my Facebook feed, where it could be seen by FOX-viewing relatives (if the algorithm doesn’t work to prevent it).
The visibility of these protests matter, in interrupting the nonsense and lies, in giving hope to people feeling isolated and alone, in giving permission to attempt the impossible.
Like lawyer-turned-television reporter Mike Sacks, who announced his own run for Congress this morning. Can this wave of media-savvy candidates make an impact in 2026?
All the @#$%ing things
Night 46: Shared photos from the April 5 Hands Off protests
Night 45: Subscribed to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter
Night 44: Donated to two campaigns for Congress in 2026
Night 43: Looked at projects tracking individuals abducted by ICE
Night 42: Learned more about Louis Armstrong, in his own words
Night 41: Revisited 20 lessons on tyranny
Night 40: Donated to victims of the LA fires
Night 39: Donated to a non-profit disaster alert service
Night 38: Removed Meta apps from my phone
Night 37: Added a new subscription for politics and culture news
Night 36: Catalogued things we know about Memlon Fuchs
Night 35: Described an early MAGA rift
Night 34: The gap between what voters want and what they’re getting
Night 33: An editorial policy of sorts
Night 32: Requesting records when medical claims are denied
Night 31: Things I’ve learned about money laundering
Night 30: Turned to the words of Frederick Douglass
Night 29: Canceled my OpenAI subscription
Night 28: Donated money to three orgs
Night 27: Addressed a hazardous tile floor
Night 26: Picked up trash with the Trash Falcons
Night 25: Learned more about Pete Hegseth than I wanted to
Night 24: Canceled recurring subscriptions I no longer need
Night 23: Dwelt in gratitude
Night 22: Picked up pie from a favorite local business
Night 21: Downsized my clothes closet
Night 20: Increased my monthly contribution to the ACLU
Night 19: Deleted a blog from two decades ago
Night 18: Researched nonprofit board opportunities
Night 17: Contributed to Trans Lifeline
Night 16: Spent time together with loved ones
Night 15: Bought from a not-for-profit online store
Night 14: Refined an icon and wordmark
Night 13: Contributed to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
Night 12: Contributed to The Guardian
Night 11: Read, reflected, and rested
Night 10: Sent money to support vaccinations in Nigeria
Night 9: Sent money to a friend in need
Night 8: Gave gifts and spoke words of appreciation aloud
Night 7: Contributed to a California-focused nonprofit newsroom
Night 6: Made homemade donuts for my team
Night 5: Opted into a paid Buttondown tier
Night 4: Reviewed my local election results
Night 3: Deactivated my X account
Night 2: Contributed to my local nonprofit newsroom
Night 1: Started by starting
Words, sorts, thinks, and actions by Chris Ereneta, from Oakland, California. Thanks for reading! Consider forwarding this to a friend! Thoughtful feedback and questions are welcomed at that.often@gmail.com